display category on left side bar in magento - magento

Question

I just want to display category and subcategory on left side bar, i have a code that work according to my need but this code only display name of the category it didn't get url for a particular category name.
code :-
<?php
$_categories = Mage::getBlockSingleton('catalog/navigation');
foreach ($_categories->getStoreCategories() as $_category) {
$category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category');
$category->load($_category->getId());
$subcategories = explode(',', $category->getChildren());
?>
<?php
foreach ($subcategories as $subcategoryId) {
$category->load($subcategoryId);
echo '<li>' . $category->getName() . '</li>';
}
?>
<?php
}
?>
It only display name for each subcategory but can't linked it with particular url for each sub category properly. suggest me where i did mistake.

Answer 1

Instead of using category object you need to load the subcategory again ex:
<?php
foreach ($subcategories as $subcategoryId) {
//$category->load($subcategoryId); instead
$subcategory = Mage::getModel("catalog/category")->load($subcategoryId);
echo '<li>' . $subcategory->getName() . '</li>';
}
?>
Second and good method as follows :
<?php $_helper = Mage::helper('catalog/category') ?>
<?php $_categories = $_helper->getStoreCategories() ?>
<?php $currentCategory = Mage::registry('current_category') ?>
<?php if (count($_categories) > 0): ?>
<ul>
<?php foreach($_categories as $_category): ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php echo $_helper->getCategoryUrl($_category) ?>">
<?php echo $_category->getName() ?>
</a>
<?php $_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId()) ?>
<?php $_subcategories = $_category->getChildrenCategories() ?>
<?php if (count($_subcategories) > 0): ?>
<ul>
<?php foreach($_subcategories as $_subcategory): ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php echo $_helper->getCategoryUrl($_subcategory) ?>">
<?php echo $_subcategory->getName() ?>
</a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>
Please note that you may need to tweak some bit of code above.
Hope this helps.